Croatian Mercy Ship Blocked

Yugoslav Army Won`t Let Vessel, Convoy Dock At Port

October 31, 1991|By Storer H. Rowley, Chicago Tribune.

ABOARD THE SLAVIJA I — Demanding safe passage to Dubrovnik, Croatian leaders defiantly argued Wednesday that this unarmed ship and a convoy of smaller vessels be allowed through a menacing blockade of Yugoslav warships.

But negotiations with the Serb-dominated federal army forced the convoy to spend the day outside the besieged Adriatic port, thwarted in its mission to bring supplies and moral support to Dubrovnik.

The Yugoslav army launched an offensive against Dubrovnik on Oct. 1. Many of those trying to return Wednesday were residents who were away from the city when the offensive began.

The drive has knocked out power to the city, curtailing drinking water and causing food shortages.

Commanders of the Slavija I, with 28 smaller Croatian ships in tow, agreed to let federal naval forces search the convoy for weapons, but they rejected Yugoslav military orders seeking to divert it from its relief mission.

The victory was a small one for the 50,000 Croatian citizens who have been blockaded and attacked by federal forces in the medieval walled city, a treasure of Baroque and Renaissance architecture.

As night fell along the coastal mountains Wednesday, the Slavija I dropped anchor near Dubrovnik. The ship had waited for hours in the Mljet Channel to regroup with its flotilla after an afternoon of searches and military interference.

After dark, as the green, red and white lights of the convoy ships lit the blackened channel, army rocket fire flashed from the distant shore. A Yugoslav warship radioed it was approaching at great speed and would ``sink every ship in the convoy`` if one of them fired on the warship.

Earlier, while it circled in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of war-torn Croatia, this cruise ship carrying 340 passengers-Croatian dignitaries, refugees from Dubrovnik and representatives from the European Community-held tense negotiations by radio with the Yugoslav military, starting at dawn Wednesday.

``You know the problem,`` crackled the voice of Adm. Stane Brovet, a vice minister of the Yugoslav military in Belgrade. ``We have information that some of your ships have arms. There are big guns (cannons).``

Aboard the Slavija I, Stipe Mesic, the Croatian president of the now-defunct Yugoslav collective presidency, retorted, ``The problem is all your soldiers have guns in their heads.``

The searches uncovered no arms, and Croatian passengers said they amounted to an attempt to harass their convoy on its voyage to try to stem the hemorrhage of refugees fleeing Dubrovnik.

``Admiral, please understand. We are going to Dubrovnik, We are going to Dubrovnik,`` insisted the message. Technically, Mesic`s position made him the commander of the federal army before Yugoslavia started to disintegrate this summer. Now the presidency is hopelessly divided.

Convoy organizers also issued an appeal for help from President Bush and other world leaders. They sent a message to the governments of the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, Germany and the European Community asking them to put immediate pressure on Serbia to stop the assault on Dubrovnik.

The army, which is controlled by Serbian officers and supports national unity, responded by attacking Croatian towns under the pretext of protecting the 600,000-strong Serb minority in the breakaway republic.

The population of Dubrovnik is more than 90 percent Croatian.

``On this ship, we are all civilians whose human rights have been endangered, and we are going to fight against that danger,`` declared Branka Separavic, wife of Croatian Foreign Minister Zvonimir Separavic and an organizer of the trip.

``This convoy is using our own weapons-human rights, culture and ideals.``

Elsewhere in Croatia, MiG-21 warplanes of the Yugoslav air force bombed the towns of Daruvar and Kutina, southeast of Zagreb, and rocketed the village of Brestaca, the Croatian Defense Ministry reported. There were no immediate reports on the number of casualties.

The besieged town of Sisak, in the Banija region south of Zagreb, also came under renewed attack Wednesday, Croatian defense officials said, as did Vukovar and Osijek, two major towns in the Danube region that have been under attack for many weeks.